Markula archaeological complex

Duringthe 2013 fieldseason previously unknown architectural remains of a church, with an enclosure in the form of defensive walls at the edge of a plateau and with a tower. They were found north-east of the previously recorded site «castle Alakhash» (Alakhash-abaa). The church consists of a slightly elongated rectangle with a semi-circular apse on the east side: there is a smooth transition from the apse to the long sides of the rectangle without any pilasters churches or chapels of this kind with protruding semi-circular apses are to be found in Abkhazia and beyond its borders in the 4 th-6 th centuries.